Earliest Memories in Nauvoo, Illinois

[This comes from a narrative written by Emmilou Collins Edmonds Adams around the year 2000. Portions in brackets [] were added for clarification.]

There was a little girl
And she had a little curl
Right in the middle of her forehead
When she was good
She was very, very good
And when she was bad
She was horrid.

This is about a little girl named Emmilou, me. I suspect the last part of the above rhyme fits me, but I know I only had curls when my mother or some one else tried hard to put them there.

I was born December 21, 1921, in Nauvoo, Illinois, the first child of Carlos C. Collins and Golda Emma Prince Collins. [For the story of why they were in Nauvoo I refer you to the story by Carlos Collins, my father.]
 
I do not remember living there, but I know that my sister, Carolyn Jane, was born there in August, 1923.
 
I remember only one incident from that time. My parents had a little canvas baby swing which would hang in a doorway. I was told not to climb in it, but like many a small child disobeyed and crawled in it anyway. What fun it must have seemed to jump up and down in it. the only problem was that I was too heavy and either the spring broke or came loose and I was left with a nasty cut on my head. The scar from that spot was visible for many years and when the hair grew in over it, it was kinky curly in that one spot only and was white. It didn't really show much but even after I was grown it amazed hair dressers when I went to them for the first time.